The Accident


I should explain, that life only seemed to have begun for me at the age of 26. A tragic motor accident when a truck ran a red light and hit the car in which I was a passenger, took my brain and left a big void in which there are few clouded happenings.

I woke in hospital many hours later not having been attended to. I cried and didn't know why. I was sore and didn't know why. I was there and didn't know why. Time inevitably passed in a world between consciousness and awareness, where my existence was in limbo and eventually they shaved parts of my head to get to the cuts and stitched them up. What hair remained, hid other deep cuts which were missed by the overworked staff. I discovered these other wounds far to late for them to be repaired. The damage had already been done.

They sent me home the next day, concussed, confused, disorientated and damaged. I sat shaking in the bath and slowly lay back into warm water that engulfed my aching head in its soothing embrace. The water soon changed color to red as the dried blood that covered my head dissolved.

Although I didn't realize it at the time, this accident had robbed me of most of my childhood memories. So my brain is only a portion of what it once was, memories are few, they appear in a fog at times as if they happened to somebody else and not me and huge areas of life have been obliterated.. life continued for me and I got used to idea of having only a few precious memories. Some parts I do remember but it feels like they happened to somebody else and not to me. Occasionally I hear some music or taste or smell something and I have to stop as tiny pieces of my life come back to me. Sometimes they stay and other times they fade just as quickly. My son, Mark, suggested that I write these memories down and then one day, hopefully, piece by piece they will all come together as a cohesive whole.